Representatives of 170 organizations from several indigenous municipalities in the Chiapas region met on April 3 in the form of a State Alliance for Civil Resistance to discuss and establish a defense against discrimination by the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE). Participants in the Alliance claim that due to the socio-economic asymmetries generated by poverty, inequality, and impunity, access to electricity should be provided as a human right, not sold as a commodity. The group hopes to address federal officials in an institutional forum and urge them to lower the cost of electricity by removing high tariffs. Since December 2003, over 300,000 Chiapan CFE customers have refused to pay electricity tariffs.
